Nashville, Tennessee (CNN) — Chris Christie swept into Tennessee on Friday and did all the things that Chris Christie does best.

He raised a barrel full of money, for the Republican Governors Association and the Tennessee GOP. A consummate political performer, he backslapped his way through two fawning campaign crowds, one in Memphis and one in Nashville, posing for pictures and obliging starstruck Republicans who complimented him on his weight loss.FULL POST

“I wish that the President had been more aggressive since minute one to go in and fix it himself, because what’s happened there is a disgrace,” Christie said in a brief interview on Friday, hours after Shinseki met with the President and stepped down from his post.

CNN’s POLITICAL GUT CHECK | for May 30, 2014 | 5 p.m.
— n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle

VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY ERIC SHINSEKI RESIGNS ... In the end, even Eric Shinseki knew he had to go, President Barack Obama said Friday in announcing the resignation of his only Veterans Affairs secretary over a growing scandal involving sometimes deadly waits for care at VA hospitals.

Obama went before reporters shortly after meeting with Shinseki at the White House and said the retired Army general told him that "the VA needs new leadership" to address the widespread problems chronicled in new reports this week, adding that Shinseki "does not want to be a distraction" to fixing the situation.

"That was Ric's judgment on behalf of his fellow veterans, and I agree. We don't have time for distractions. We need to fix the problem," Obama said.

Washington (CNN) – The chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi waved off questions Friday about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's criticism of GOP congressional investigations of the 2012 attacks in her forthcoming book “Hard Choices.”

"There is a time and a place for everything and her book tour is neither for me," Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina told CNN about the chapter of the book that covers the attack in Benghazi, which left the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans dead.

(CNN) - Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has resigned, President Barack Obama said on Friday. Obama said he would demand accountability if problems were found at VA medical facilities, and accepted Shinseki's resignation. The two met at the White House before the President announced the the development, which came as political pressure mounted for the Cabinet officer to step down.

Washington (CNN) – Hillary Clinton strikes a defiant tone on Benghazi in her upcoming memoir "Hard Choices" and knocks those "who exploit" the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack as "a political tool," according to a Politico report on the chapter.

The former secretary of state also writes that the attack – which Republicans have used to bludgeon Clinton since the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in the incident- is surrounded by a "regrettable amount of misinformation, speculation, and flat-out deceit by some in politics and the media."